Percy Jackson and the City of the Ancients
by CubsKing
Summary: I should have known better than to think I could take a peaceful vacation.


Percy Jackson and the City of the Ancients

Timeframe: Percy Jackson – After The Last Olympian. Stargate – After SGA 5x20 – Enemy at the Gate.

Disclaimer: I own neither Percy Jackson nor Stargate. More's the pity :-(

Author's Note: I consider this story a one-shot. So unless y'all leave lots of reviews and, more importantly, inspiration for more, it's done.

~'`^`'~-,._.,-~'`^`'~-,._.,-~'`^`'~

I should have known better than to think I could take a peaceful vacation.

It was Spring Break, so my girlfriend Annabeth and I decided to take a trip to San Francisco to visit her Dad and Stepmom. Since we go to private schools in New York, she doesn't see them very often. Their relationship has had more than a few rocky patches in the past, but lately they've patched things up and I know that she does miss them. Our breaks lined up, so I arranged to surprise her by borrowing a couple of Pegasii from the camp to take us out there for the week.

No sooner had we arrived at the City by the Bay than I felt … something. I wasn't sure what, but I knew something big had just happened in the Pacific Ocean. As the son of Poseidon, I have a strong connection with the water. So while Annabeth reconnected with her family, I took a trip down to the harbor and tried to get some answers about what was happening.

The feeling was getting stronger. I couldn't tell if it was because I was getting closer to the ocean or if whatever I was feeling was coming nearer, so I dove in to take a look. After a few minutes of navigating the currents, I could tell I was close, but I still couldn't see anything. Then, all of a sudden, the sky above me went black. Sitting on the surface of the bay above my head, and just outside of the Golden Gate Bridge, was an enormous floating city.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The city was at least as big as Olympus and was putting out an unbelievable amount of heat and energy. How could I not have seen it from the mainland?

I had to get a better look. The closer I got, the more I could feel the presence of the city. It was almost like it was reaching out and calling to me.

When I climbed out of the water onto a pier on the west side, I felt something course through my body. It's impossible to describe, but it kind of felt like a combination of a jolt of electricity and a surge of recognition, mixed with a reassuring, almost motherly sense of comfort and warmth.

When I took my first good look at the city from the top side, I nearly went into shock. The place was enormous! After a few moments of gawking, I realized I had to go get Annabeth. She would kill me if I didn't bring her out immediately. You see, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up. In fact, right now she's the lead architect in the effort to rebuild and improve Olympus. I may not understand what fascinates her about building designs, but the way she lights up when she talks about them or looks at them is definitely worth it. I knew without a doubt that she would be enraptured by the floating city.

I turned around to head back to the mainland and fetch her. Looking out towards San Francisco, I saw a heavy layer of Mist surrounding the city. That must have been why I couldn't see the city. I was about to dive in when I heard the sound of a gun cocking behind me. Now, I may be practically invulnerable due to the curse of Achilles, but I still don't like being shot at. Plus, since my back was to them, there was always the chance whoever was behind me would hit my weak spot. Before even being told, I put my hands up and slowly started to turn around. I had my sword, Riptide, in its pen form in my pocket. On top of that, because I was in a city on the ocean, I didn't really need a weapon to do some serious damage. But I was counting on the fact that whoever it was wouldn't know that.

A pair of men in their mid-thirties stood in front of me. They were dressed in some sort of uniform, but it was one that I didn't recognize. One was holding an automatic rifle while the other had drawn some sort of hand held weapon that I'd never seen before. It looked almost like a gun from Halo or some video game like that.

Who are you? How did you get here?" the man with the blaster pistol asked.

My name's Percy," I replied. "And I swam out here."

The men stared at me in disbelief.

Seriously, how did you get here? How did you even know we were here?" the guy asked again.

I told you, I swam," I insisted. "As for how I knew the city was here, I could just sense it."

Both men tensed at that. The one with the handgun reached up and tapped an earpiece and began to speak without ever taking his eyes off of me. "Control room? This is Lorne. We have an unauthorized visitor on Pier 4."

He paused a moment to listen for a response. His reply to the question caught me off guard a little.

Human, sir," Lorne stated. I almost corrected him automatically (which wouldn't have been the brightest thing to do) until I realized something: from the way he said it, an answer other than human would have been reasonably expected in the control room. Before I could ponder the implications of that, he continued. "A teenage boy, roughly 16 years old, who says he felt the city and swam out here."

After another moment, he said, "Yes, sir. We'll be there shortly."

He tapped his earpiece, then said, "Come with us. Our leader would like to speak with you."

Yeah, _that_ didn't sound ominous.

It took me a few moments to decide what to do. I really didn't want to be too far from my escape route, but these guys weren't giving off an evil vibe. I also realized that if I wanted to bring Annabeth out here, I needed to play nice. "Take me to your leader," I replied.

After they searched me for weapons, Lorne, who it turns out was a Major in the Air Force, fell into step beside me. The other man was introduced to me as Sergeant Means and followed a few steps behind. I had to give them credit. They did know how to escort a prisoner while still maintaining enough distance to keep from both being attacked at once.

After about a minute of walking the Major opened a door to what looked like a closet and stepped inside. I looked between the two men for a moment. "You've got to be kidding me," I said as they gestured me forward. I reached into my pocket and gripped Riptide.

The Major actually grinned at that. "Don't worry. It's like our elevator," he explained.

I still didn't wasn't going to get inside. After another few moments, he sighed and said, "Fine. I'll go first, then you and Means can come next." With that, he triggered the door. The Sergeant immediately stepped around me and waved to open the door again. Lorne was gone. Before I could react, he pulled me in and tapped on a map of the city on the back wall. I felt a blinding moment of disorientation before the door opened again. The hallway had changed, though, and Lorne was standing there waiting.

I guess I was looking a little green because Lorne asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. That was just a bit disorienting," I replied.

He frowned. "I've never heard of anyone reacting to the transporter before," he commented. With a gesture over his shoulder, he added, "Well, control room's this way."

I wasn't sure how, but I knew exactly where we were going. Another minute of walking and we were there.

I had thought the hallways were nice, but the cathedral-like room we entered was beautiful. I was sure that if Annabeth was here, she'd spend the next 10 minutes or so spinning in circles trying to take it all in.

We walked up a set of steps. I could tell that they had writing on, but we were up them too fast for me to decipher what it said. We turned the corner and were in what I knew immediately was the heart of the city. There were several men sitting at computers going over various readouts. As we came in to the control room, a short bald man came out of the nearby office. "Major Lorne, I take it this is our visitor?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," he replied crisply.

"What's your name, young man?" the older gentleman, who was obviously the leader of the city, asked me.

"Percy Jackson," I answered honestly. I figured that there was no point in hiding it, since anyone associated with the Air Force could find my old wanted posters, regardless of the fact that I'd been cleared.

"And how did you arrive here, Mr. Jackson?" he questioned.

"I swam," I said for the third time. It was starting to get annoying. Or maybe it was the low buzz in my ears that was bothering me...

The man frowned. "We're an awful long ways from the shore."

"I'm a very good swimmer," I remarked as the buzzing increased.

"And how was it you said you found us? The city called to you?" he continued.

Now I could barely hear him over the noise. "What is that?" I practically yelled.

The other guys looked at each other, I guess trying to figure out what I was talking about. In the meantime, I stretched out my senses. Almost immediately, I felt the problem. The thought 'off' had no more than crossed my mind when it was suddenly gone. I let out a big sigh of relief.

A moment later a couple of the guys sitting at the computers gasped. "Sir, you should come see this," one of them said.

"What is it, Chuck?" the leader asked as he took a step behind the closest technician.

"Power usage has just cut in half," Chuck answered.

"Rodney and I have spent the last several hours trying to shut off a program that started when we arrived here," another man with a heavy Czech accent interjected. "It was locked and we were unable to turn it off. Somehow it has now gone inactive again."

Everyone turned and stared at me. "What?" I asked. "All I did was think 'How do I turn this noise off?'"

The men looked at each other again. A moment later, Major Lorne handed me something that looked like a Palm Pilot. As soon as I touched it, the screen lit up and filled with data. I could see information about everyone in the room. It was so detailed that it was even giving me real time statistics on heart rate and blood pressure.

The Czech muttered something under his breath in his native tongue. "He must have the strongest gene we've ever encountered, nearly on par with the Ancients."

"Who?" I asked, a little worried that I'd stepped into yet another mess.

"Young man, if you'd step into my office, I'll try to explain," their leader stated as he gestured to the room from which he'd entered.

I shrugged and walked in. He followed a couple steps behind, motioning for everyone else to stay where they were.

"I'm Richard Woolsey," he said, "and this is the city of the Ancients. Welcome to Atlantis."

~'`^`'~-,._.,-~'`^`'~-,._.,-~'`^`'~

Published 11-11-11


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